The Open University receives ‘highly commended’ in regional construction awards

The Open University department responsible for providing and maintaining the facilities of The OU has been awarded for its collaboration with partner organisations in the annual London and South East Constructing Excellence Awards.The Estates division was awarded second place and a ‘Highly Commended’ rating in the Constructing Excellence Awards 2011 for London and the South East region for their collaborative work with their construction partners to deliver The Open University Capital Projects Framework over the past three years.For the Integration and Collaborative Working category, judges were looking for evidence of common processes, long-term relationships and of how workforce development has improved as a result of collaboration.The judging criteria states: ‘Successful entries will have succeeded in integrating their teams to such a level that they appear as a single entity to the customer.’Open University Director of Estates Alan Burrell said: “It is a difficult process to enable good teamworking in general and is particularly challenging within the construction industry. We are very pleased that our efforts to produce a strong team from diverse partners across a number of disciplines have been recognised.”